An organisation made up of public and private companies and State-backed entities aimed at promoting business between Ireland and Saudi Arabia has pulled out of a business event in Riyadh next month.

Around 300 jobs are up for grabs at Dublin Airport, with the construction of its new North runway.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) and a community group have ambitious plans to bring more tourists to a stately home in Co Cork, with the hope of attracting up to 900,000 people annually to it within the next seven years.

If there’s anything guaranteed to start a fight between regional and capital cities, it’s a proposal — or even just talk about a proposal — for a major capital expenditure development, ideally involving railways and aviation.

Management at Dublin Airport are rubbishing a suggestion that a new terminal is needed in the near future.

THE McCarthy report says Ireland should review salaries paid to employees of semi-state companies by comparing them with other countries, especially Britain.

Policy context of asset sales

THE sell-off of the state airports at Dublin, Cork and Shannon is expected to be one of the more controversial recommendations contained in a new report due to be presented to the Government later this week.

AER LINGUS chief executive Christoph Mueller offered the hope that staff will not be subjected to possible pay cuts until next year at the earliest, with the airline committed to “finding other ways” to lower costs.

PADDY Power is committed to job creation in Ireland, despite the effect of the proposed tax on revenues from online operations potentially putting it at a disadvantage to some of its competitors.

THE Minister for Tourism, Mary Hanafin wrote to the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan in the run-up to the budget urging him to suspend the contentious €10 air travel tax for two years.

A GROUP of airline, tourism and economics experts will come together next month to debate the future of Shannon Airport which suffered the worst decline in passenger figures of any European airport in 2010.

SHANNON Airport Authority “should 100% receive” the €3.5 million Ryanair paid to the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) for breach of the five-year contract with Shannon Airport on passenger charges.

CONTACTS were continuing yesterday between Aer Lingus and the Department of Enterprise concerning a controversial ‘leave and return’ redundancy deal involving 715 workers at the airline in 2008.

IN justifying his decision in 2007 to enter government Green Party leader John Gormley cited advice given to him during coalition negotiations by Mary Harney, a woman who at that stage had been a senior minister for 10 years (and who had been a junior minister earlier in her career).

TAX bills have been issued to some Aer Lingus staff by the Revenue Commissioners as it believes a controversial 2008 redundancy scheme was not valid.

FIANNA Fáil are “scumbags” according to Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary and there’s no way he’ll be voting for them.

A MAJOR row has broken out between Ryanair and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) over discounts and passenger numbers.

SHANNON Airport received a major boost yesterday with the news that the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) is seeking tenders from third parties to establish a cargo facility at the airport.